


A Heart-Shaped Reactor

by SStickperson



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: A heart-shaped reactor, Icing, M/M, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Making little kids happy, Natasha gets caught by a little kid, OC Little Boy, P.F. Chang's, Steve helps, Tony wants to piss people off, Tony's fans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-09
Updated: 2013-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-18 04:39:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SStickperson/pseuds/SStickperson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony gets a letter from a fan through Steve, and when he realizes it's an opportunity to irritate a family and make a young boy happy, well... It's just too good to pass up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Heart-Shaped Reactor

“Here,” is the only warning he gets before there’s a letter stuffed into his hands, and if it were anyone other than Steve (or Rhodey, or Pepper, really), he’d drop it like hotcakes.

But he learned a long time ago that Steve doesn’t care about his “not-being-handed-things” bullshit (Steve’s words, he swears). Then again, it also took the Captain four months to be convinced that it was _okay_ to have Shell Shock, to have PTSD, because General Patton wasn’t going to kick him out of the army, and he wouldn’t be discharged or kicked off the team. He hired Rhodey’s best friend and military psychologist and waged war against SHIELD so Steve would feel comfortable telling her things and knowing that SHIELD wasn’t going to find him out.

But he looks at the paper in his hand, and it’s in a child’s writing.

“Read it,” Steve commands. “I think it’s an appropriate opportunity to piss people off.”

“Oo, why didn’t you say that in the first place?” he asked, following Steve into the kitchen where he’s making a cake. “And did you pull this out of your ass? I don’t see any other mail here.”

“It came from Natasha. A little boy stopped her on the street in Topeka, Kansas on assignment. The mark never noticed her, but the boy picked her out.”

“I now have a lack of faith in our resident wall-crawler,” he announces as Rhodey walks into the kitchen. He leans up, pulls the man by his tie into a quick kiss, and then turns to the letter to read as Rhodey asks what it was and Steve replies.

  
_Dear Mr. Ironman,_

 

_I hear people all the time say that you don’t have a heart. That the glowy thing in your chest replaced your heart. But that thing powers your suits, doesn’t it? So isn’t it a heart, too, because it powers you and your suits, which are also a part of you?_

_I have an Ironman action figure that I play with all the time. It’s my favorite toy, but my mom calls it Ironheart and my granddaddy calls you Ironheartless._

_Anyway, I’m writing ‘cause of a problem. A few months ago, the doctors told me I have aids. I’m not looking for much, but I wanted to know if you would take a picture of your heart and show it to my mom and granddaddy so that way they can’t say that you’re heartless. I know you have to have a heart, ‘cause otherwise you wouldn’t save the world and be a good guy, but the Make a Wish place said that asking you to do that and then show it to my family wasn’t a good enough wish. So I prayed real hard and an angel showed me to Ms. Widow when she came to town._

_I haven’t asked them for another wish ‘cause I just want to make sure that my mom and granddaddy know that you have a heart. Is that possible?_

 

_Sincerely,_

_Clark Winsor_

 

Tony rereads the letter again, humming softly in thought before pursing his lips and setting the letter down. Steve is watching him with an amused expression as he pours the batter into the pan.

“So?”

“I’m thinking. The request is processing,” he says, and then, just like that, his brain clicks online, and he’s rewiring the reactor to form a heart, or at least glow in a heart, because he’s Tony Motherfucking Stark and that is not the hardest thing he’s ever done.

He takes Steve’s sketchpad and pen, listening to his protest absentmindedly, and starts scribbling away with the resigned sigh from his leader. By the time he sees the bowl of icing sliding into his view, he’s almost done, but he takes the offering anyway, links his arm in Rhodey’s, and leads him down to the lab so that he can work. And work he does, for a while, at least.

“Hey, Tone,” he hears Rhodey say, and he looks up in time to find his lips smothered by Rhodey’s, and they taste quite sweet.

He darts his tongue out to taste them, to swipe across the bottom lip, and he realizes that it’s chocolate icing Steve made. He groans softly and pushes his tongue into Rhodey’s mouth, catching hints of icing smeared in the little crooks and places he maps out regularly as their tongues move against each other for a second or two. He pushes into his lap and straddles him, only to have Rhodey laugh into the kiss.

He pulls back, looking offended.

“As much as I like your laughter, hot chocolate, I don’t like it at me.”

Rhodey just shakes his head. “I love you, Tone.”

“I love me, too, but why now?”

Rhodey just shakes his head again. “You finish your project, and then we’ll go have some fun with the icing.”

“Or we could have fun now with the icing.”

It’s a futile struggle for Rhodey, because in the end, as Tony shoves his tongue into his mouth and does absolutely filthy things with his lips as he kisses down his lover’s body, mouthing at the sensitive areas and lavishing attention to his nipples to hear him moan, he ends up getting his fun and finishing his project within two hours. Even then, when he crawls back into bed after finishing the reactor, laying on top of Rhodey and pressing their lips together, he finds himself soothing himself by kissing across his jaw and down to nuzzle against his pulse point where a beautiful hickey is blooming.

He presses a kiss against it, then slides up to press another kiss against his lips and then press their foreheads together.

“So, tomorrow, you’re flying me out to Topeka, Kansas to show this kid my wonderful new reactor.”

“Tone--”

Tony just shuts him up by kissing him again. It takes a little convincing, but he’s always been good with his tongue, so...

He finds himself standing at the little boy’s door with his briefcase (just in case) and in a fine-pressed suit, knocks three times and then leans in and kisses Rhodey again. It took them four hours to get the new reactor hooked up, but it’s there, and he’s ready to _wow_ this kid with his invention.

A scowling old man opens the door. “Yeah?”

“I’m here for a Clark Winsor?” he says, throwing as much enthusiasm into his greeting as he can to _piss him the fuck off_.

Rhodey rolls his eyes. “We got a letter, sir, from the--”

“Whoa, now, tootsie pop,” he manages to get out before the door slams in his face, and he knocks again. “No mentioning confidential stuff to assholes.”

“Guess that leaves out you, huh?”

“Well, I’m the exception. I’ll just hack my way into finding out all the--”

“Yes, I know,” Rhodey intones as the door opens again with a younger woman, and he grins at her.

She looks surprised, but invites them in and calls for her son, who, much to Tony’s utter glee, is playing with his action figure of Iron Man. The little boy goes still when he sees him, and Tony smirks, putting his sunglasses on top of his head (why was it so sunny in Kansas?). The silence drags on for while before the little boy blushes, clutching his toy against his chest.

“Are you really...?” the boy whispers.

“I’m really really,” Tony says. “And I’ve really really got a surprise to show you, little man.”

“Really really?”

“Really really really,” Tony says, unbuttoning the suit coat and handing it to Rhodey. The faint blue of the reactor can be seen faintly through the shirt.

“Did my wish come true?” the boy whispers, taking a step forward as Tony unbuttons the shirt. Both the mother and the father, as well as the grandparents, have joined them in the living room.

“I did one better than that,” he proclaims as he undoes the top button and hands the shirt and tie to Rhodey, who’s just shaking his head and trying not to smile as he bares his chest for the boy, crouching down.

The little boy gasps as Tony gestures to the reactor, the glowing light that was always there now flickering in time with his heartbeat and faintly in the shape of a heart. Clark’s jaw drops in amazement, and the kid steps over again, a hand stretched out.

“Can I?” he whispers.

Tony gives him an amused look and nods, then smirks up at the parents as the boy is distracted. They all look astonished. Good, he thinks, because he _lives_ to prove people wrong. And piss them off. He looks back down when he feels fingers at the edge of the scar tissue, the awed look on the little boy’s face softening his smirk into something, he will later refuse to admit to, softer. With a little effort, he pops the reactor out of his chest, chuckling quietly at the boy’s gasp. He holds it out an inch or so, making an offering motion toward the boy. He can see Rhodey tensing beside him, but if there’s one thing that the man doesn’t know, it’s that he’s had the reactor out of his chest plenty of times to sit and stare at and wonder, “What if...”

He laughs when Clark’s eyes nearly bug out his head at the feel. The reactor is warm, like a real heart, and the light blinks like a pulse. He smile and meets Clark’s gaze.

“How’s that for proof of a heart?”

He takes the kid’s other hand and puts it over his pulse point. They are synced perfectly, and the boy looks floored. He meets the kid’s gaze again, then takes the reactor back and puts it in his chest.

“I told you he had a heart,” Clark crows, hugging Tony tightly.

Tony immediately startles, jerking at the hug, and Rhodey looks about ready to step in, but he shakes his head and wraps an arm around the kid.

“Wishes come true every day, kiddo. Just keep remembering that,” Tony says before rising. “Now, I have a cool little robot that I made for you that can fly, and I think you need at least one signed picture of the two of us, so why don’t we take care of that, and then I’ll take you all out to dinner wherever you want.”

That night, as he holds the boy fast asleep in his arm after eating out, Tony looks at Rhodey, and the man smiles softly, leaning in kiss him gently under the lamplight, and he knows that the beat of the light is flickering because his own heart is fluttering at the sweet kiss, at the taste of the overly-priced duck Rhodey had ordered from P.F. Chang’s and the feel of his soft lips against his. He feels his lips move in a familiar dance, pressing and moving gently, and this is everything he could have asked for at that moment. He returns the kiss, even as Rhodey’s hand rests on his hip and he pulls back to walk the boy home and tuck him in, the little robot and the signed photo resting near his head.

He even manages to steal another kiss from Rhodey before they take off for home.


End file.
